http://proxymatters.com Your trusted website for shareholder voting discussion Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:19:24 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en When the initial results from Yahoo's shareholder votes were released last Friday, much of the coverage was positive for CEO Jerry Yang and other board members... "Criticism Is Sparse" read one headline in The Wall Street Journal.  The article continued: Shareholders overwhelmingly endorsed the board, with Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock receiving a ... http://proxymatters.com/2008/08/06/yahoo-coverage-revisited/ Capital Research Global Investors, which owns 7% of Yahoo, publicly questioned on Monday the validity of the announced results from Yahoo's shareholder vote.  And they were right to be skeptical. Capital Reseach and the Capital World Investors control a combined 17% of Yahoo's shares and recommended to its fund managers that they withhold votes ... http://proxymatters.com/2008/08/05/yahoo-shareholder-vote-disputed-altered/ Tremendous editorial on splitting Chairman/CEO roles appears today in The Wall Street Journal written by Gary Wilson.   In addtion to laying out several well-founded points supporting split roles, Wilson reveals a stunning statistic of which even we were unaware:  65% of S&P 500 companies have the same person employed as both Chairman and CEO.   Wilson's ... http://proxymatters.com/2008/07/09/chairmanceo-joint-duties-still-prevalent/ Shareholder activists have won the revolution... so says today's The Wall Street Journal. But let's not all fly off to Sardinia for that Kozlowski-like party yet. A superficial article on the front cover of Section C includes some statistics about more board seats won, more resolutions adopted, etc.  But nowhere does the author stop to ask, ... http://proxymatters.com/2008/07/08/the-revolution-is-over-oops-not-yet/ Our favorite barbarian Carl Icahn has published a letter today detailing his growing relationship with Microsoft's Steve Ballmer. Particularly troublesome for Yahoo, Icahn noted that "several of our conversations have lasted as long as an hour."   The likelihood is low that Carl has been asking Steve about the Windows XP Service Pack 3 patch.  ... http://proxymatters.com/2008/07/07/icahn-msft-more-trouble-for-yang-yahoo/ InBev NV will file papers with the SEC today to set in motion a fight for control of Anheuser-Busch's board. For more from Reuters, click here. http://proxymatters.com/2008/07/07/anheuser-busch-targeted-for-proxy-fight/ The Wall Street Journal runs an excellent profile today on corporate governance problems at (gasp!) RiskMetrics Group. RiskMetrics, as owner ISS Governance Services, makes a living by proclaiming good corporate governance standards.  Too bad the company doesn't live up to its own advice. This Wednesday, shareholders will have a chance to attend the ... http://proxymatters.com/2008/06/02/riskmetrics-faces-critics-on-wednesday/ Two of my favorite topics this spring... Carl Icahn and Yahoo.  So who would have thunk this... Reports today indicate that Carl Icahn is considering a proxy fight vs. Yahoo's board.  The deadline is Thursday (May 15) to nominate candidates -- no problem for King Carl as he has a stable ... http://proxymatters.com/2008/05/13/could-icahn-win-a-proxy-fight-at-yahoo/ Microsoft's Steve Ballmer showed fiscal prudence and restraint by refusing to bow to Yahoo's expensive demands and simply walked away. Now, Yahoo faces an unenviable position, dealing with the fallout from "winning". First, Yahoo didn't win.  Maybe its employees did, but not the shareholders.  And that's not how our system is supposed ... http://proxymatters.com/2008/05/04/trouble-looms-ahead-as-yahoo-faces-losses-fury-and-possible-lawsuits/ With both Microsoft and Blockbuster exhibiting extreme patience with their acquisitions attempts, it's worth looking at the root cause. Namely, it's the lack of other possible buyers.  The turmoil in credit markets has stripped much of the power away from private equity firms, who have dominated the M&A landscape for much ... http://proxymatters.com/2008/04/27/capital-markets-are-proxy-fight-friendly-part-ii/